Thursday, December 18, 2008

2008 Year in Review, From My Point of View

Highlights of the year

Attending "Reason for Hope" lecture given by Dr. Jane Goodall

My Hubby catching a 38 lb flathead catfish!

Going on vacation alone with my hubby. We stayed with our friend Kenli in Arlington, Va for a few days and visited many of the sites in our capitol. It was great to visit with her, it had been 3 years since we had last seen one another. My favorite places were the National Botanical Garden. There was a fern that was basically a tree, so amazing. I could have spent the whole 4 days there. We also really loved the new Smithsonian Native American Museum. From there we went to Chincoteage and Assateauge Islands in Virgina. I fufilled a childhood dream by visiting there are seeing the wild poinies that I read about as a child in Margurite Henry's classic "Misty of Chincoteauge". We hiked the marshes, beaches ate very fresh seafood and surf fished. It was so wonderful and relaxing. When we got there the first afternoon we headed straight to the beach to fish. Within an hour Jeremy had hooked into something HUGE. And when you are fishing the ocean, you could catch anything from an octopus (like I did the year before) to a shark. There's no telling what kind of crazy creature is on the end of your line!! So it's pretty exciting. It was a friday afternoon and the beach was pretty full, so people started to notice that he was fighting something large. He started to draw a crowd. After a 25 minute fight, we got the first glimpse of it. A little girl near by let out a scream, as did I. It was a huge ray. Anywhere from 4 to 4.5 feet across it's "wings". We later discovered that it was a Spiny Butterfly Ray. The pictures do no justice as to the size of it. That was really the only thing of note that we caught.

Lots and lots of swimming. The lodge opened an indoor waterpark, complete with a big slide, lazy river and hot tub so we swam there and the outdoor pool quite a lot. Brenna taught herself to swim underwater and also does great underwater flips. Also swam in Jeremy's parents pond and Monroe Reservoir several times.

Bloomington Farmers Market. The kids and I, and sometimes friends, went to this 4 or 5 times this summer to buy wonderful produce, listen to live music and eat fresh kettle corn. There is also this wonerful artifical stream that the kids can take thier shoes off and play in which was so fun for them. Jeremy works on Saturdays, so he never gets to go, which kinda stinks.

What I learned this year

When you hear that small voice in your head (God, intuition, spirit guide, what ever you want to call it!, I call it God) telling you to do something...........DO IT! There were so many instances this year where this happened to me. Simple stuff like "slow down", then a deer would be in the middle of the road as I topped a hill. Thankfully I listened that time. Other times I didn't listen when I heard "move that table or chair" then the kids would fall and bonk their noggins on it. There were two instances where I did listen and those have become very important spiritual touchstones for me this year.

Don't be so hard on myself, I am human, born to make mistakes. I am still, and probably will always be, working on this one. Guilt becomes very ingrained and can be hard to purge, but with Gods grace I am working on it and hope to not continue the guilt legacy.

Give thanks for EVERYTHING! yes, even the bad stuff, I have a hard time doing this too. But in so many situations you see God create miracles out of bad situations and choices.

Live in the moment. It's all we have.

Everything and everyone on earth is transient. Don't take anything or anyone for granted, they may not be there tomorrow. I've always know this but every year it becomes more apparent.

No comments:

About this blog.

I feel like I should have been born in the pioneer days but here I sit, smack dab in the middle of the 21st century. Thankfully I have a husband of 14 years and kids, ages 8 and 7 who share this crazy journey called life with me. Follow us as we go outdoors and indoors and continue our adventures in subsistance and natural living. Join us as we try to just plain slow down and find the joy and beauty in our world.